13-15. REM - Orange Crush, 10,000 Maniacs - What's the Matter Here? The Stone Roses - I am the Resurrection
Just before the end of my first year at university, my mate from home, Bern, sent me a couple of tapes which caused the next seismic shift in my attitude towards music. Perhaps, he had heard me proclaim, in the naïve and stubborn narrow-mindedness of my youth, that all contemporary music in the late 80s was shit and that only 'old stuff' was worth listening to. In terms of what was in the charts, I was unarguably spot on in my assessment. Compare episodes of Top of the Pops from 1980-2 (regularly featuring Madness, Blondie, Bowie, Kate Bush, The Police, The Jam, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Dexy's etc...) and 1987-9 (packed full of Stock, Aitken and Waterman and insipid dance-orientated crap). What I didn't know, but Bern did, was that outside of the regular charts, but populating the Indie charts and alternative rock scene, there were bands that most people had not (or not yet) heard about, but who were pretty fucking brilliant.
One TDK90 tape had REM's 1988 album Green on side one and In My Tribe by 10,000 Maniacs on side two. Both bands were guitar-orientated. Each, to varying extents, had strong folk-rock influences. The respective lead singers, Michael Stipe and Natalie Merchant (who were, incidentally, a couple at that time) had unique and distinctive voices, utterly unlike anyone else's you might hear. Bern must have known that my liking for Dylan and other old stuff with those very same attributes would leave me open to liking these two bands. And he was right. He radicalised me with that tape.
This was 1989 and in what now seems very quaint and antiquated, there was a regular flow of letters between students and their friends back home. Each morning I'd go along to breakfast in the hall of residence dining hall and check my pigeon hole for post. Several times a week there would be something from Bern or Dalboy, occasionally letters from other friends from home, and sometimes a jiffy bag housing a tape. And in those long hours of lounging around in my room, not working hard enough, I'd write them letters packed full of nonsense and absurdity and catalogues of girls I fancied and got nowhere with.
The other tape from Bern that had a similarly powerful impact was the debut album by The Stone Roses. Again, the 60s influences being strong, but the whole sounding like nothing before, meant that Bern knew I couldn't fail to love this. Within 6 months, it seemed like everyone under 25 loved The Stone Roses and they became affiliated with the Madchester scene as it transitioned from something local and underground to something national and mainstream. I think I'm right in saying that the last Top of the Pops of the 1980s featured both the Roses and The Happy Mondays. Popular music was about to drag itself out of a slump for a little while.
Without abandoning my love of some now-even-more unfashionable music, as mentioned in the previous post, I did skirt around the edge of the Madchester scene. Dipped a toe in, at most. I wasn't going to try any drugs associated with it. I wasn't going to completely change my sartorial image. But I did find myself keen to dance to the music that constituted the Madchester sound. And I cut off my mullet and grew my fringe long enough to give myself a centre parting and sport a modest pair of curtains. I even tried to grow a goatee, but my Dad took the piss, so I shaved it off.
Bern, Dalboy and myself went to see REM, 10,000 Maniacs and The Stone Roses in concert at different times within that year. In the case of the latter, it was at Ally Pally, where the sound quality was awful and the crowd consisted of 16 year olds in huge flares, that reminded me that at 19, I was already a little bit middle-aged and still very uncool and square.
I think just saying 'square' makes me square.
One TDK90 tape had REM's 1988 album Green on side one and In My Tribe by 10,000 Maniacs on side two. Both bands were guitar-orientated. Each, to varying extents, had strong folk-rock influences. The respective lead singers, Michael Stipe and Natalie Merchant (who were, incidentally, a couple at that time) had unique and distinctive voices, utterly unlike anyone else's you might hear. Bern must have known that my liking for Dylan and other old stuff with those very same attributes would leave me open to liking these two bands. And he was right. He radicalised me with that tape.
This was 1989 and in what now seems very quaint and antiquated, there was a regular flow of letters between students and their friends back home. Each morning I'd go along to breakfast in the hall of residence dining hall and check my pigeon hole for post. Several times a week there would be something from Bern or Dalboy, occasionally letters from other friends from home, and sometimes a jiffy bag housing a tape. And in those long hours of lounging around in my room, not working hard enough, I'd write them letters packed full of nonsense and absurdity and catalogues of girls I fancied and got nowhere with.
The other tape from Bern that had a similarly powerful impact was the debut album by The Stone Roses. Again, the 60s influences being strong, but the whole sounding like nothing before, meant that Bern knew I couldn't fail to love this. Within 6 months, it seemed like everyone under 25 loved The Stone Roses and they became affiliated with the Madchester scene as it transitioned from something local and underground to something national and mainstream. I think I'm right in saying that the last Top of the Pops of the 1980s featured both the Roses and The Happy Mondays. Popular music was about to drag itself out of a slump for a little while.
Without abandoning my love of some now-even-more unfashionable music, as mentioned in the previous post, I did skirt around the edge of the Madchester scene. Dipped a toe in, at most. I wasn't going to try any drugs associated with it. I wasn't going to completely change my sartorial image. But I did find myself keen to dance to the music that constituted the Madchester sound. And I cut off my mullet and grew my fringe long enough to give myself a centre parting and sport a modest pair of curtains. I even tried to grow a goatee, but my Dad took the piss, so I shaved it off.
Bern, Dalboy and myself went to see REM, 10,000 Maniacs and The Stone Roses in concert at different times within that year. In the case of the latter, it was at Ally Pally, where the sound quality was awful and the crowd consisted of 16 year olds in huge flares, that reminded me that at 19, I was already a little bit middle-aged and still very uncool and square.
I think just saying 'square' makes me square.
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